Turkey condemns Egypt over disproportionate use of force on protesters

Turkey has strongly condemned Egypt over its disproportionate use of force on protesters wanting to mark the fourth anniversary of their Jan. 25 revolution and expressing condolences to families of those killed during the protests in 2011.

“It is impossible for the Egyptian administration to provide stability and security to its people with this exclusive and repressive approach,” Ankara said in a statement a day after more than a dozen were killed in protests in Egypt on Sunday.

Despite Egypt’s crackdown on dissent, renewed unrest has emerged as Egyptians marked the anniversary on Sunday of the end of three decades of autocratic rule under ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Some 25 people were killed in anti-government protests on Sunday.

A car bomb killed one person and wounded two near a police station in Egypt’s second largest city, Alexandria, on Tuesday, and sources say police discovered three other explosive devices.

Most of the deaths took place in Cairo’s eastern Matariyah district — an Islamist stronghold where police used tear gas and birdshot to disperse supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group armed with firebombs and rocks.

A statement the Turkish Foreign Ministry released on Monday strongly condemned the crackdown by Egyptian security forces saying that the authorities’ attempts to quell protests violates the most basic rights and freedoms of people.

Ankara said the security services used “disproportionate force” against “peaceful protests” and that Turkey is “saddened” to see that many Egyptians were killed, injured or detained. The statement said the Egypt administration’s crackdown on Sunday is the latest example of its attempt to put everyone it regards as a threat, regardless of their opinion or ideology, under pressure, and wear them down by “despotism.”